NOthings for iPhone – “Game of life through abstract imagery”

Created by Constantijn Smit and developed by Artm Baguinski and Jan Misker, NOthings is an iPhone application which allows you to collect “no-things”. The user can subtract, or better yet, abstract a simplified geometric shape from the picture. This shape is uploaded to a database where all shapes of all users are collected.

Your collection of nOthings is segmented into different classes into which the collected shapes are ‘stored’. The segmentation is done based on all the shapes present. So the collection is dynamic and changes through the collected shapes. As you collect more objects you may receive feedback about a shape and its place in the collection (and maybe your role compared to other users). However, the collection is analyzed periodically and it could happen that your personal collection of shapes is suddenly completely scattered.

As an artist in residence at the Summer Sessions of V2_ I try to create a work that is basically about nothing. A work that paradoxically tries to appeal to an audience as if it is about something but then the user will experience nothing really. Despite this void experience my goal is that the user keeps using the app even though it serves no goal. In this way the meta-experience beyond and above the direct use of the work is of an existential nature. The ultimate goal is to confront the user with the question why he or she keeps doing endless repetitive actions for superficial rewards even though he or she knows that it serves no purpose, has no end nor goal but at the same time remains worthwhile.